By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday said he is ready to give up his home portfolio if state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu wants it for himself.
Randhawa’s statement came as Sidhu has been questioning his party’s government in the state for not being able to arrest Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who has been booked in a drug case under the NDPS Act.
Sidhu had said nothing would happen with the registration of an FIR against the Akali leader, saying he would not rest till Majithia was arrested.
“If my brother (Sidhu) says that he wants the home ministry, then I will immediately put it at his feet,” said Randhawa while talking to reporters here.
Ever since he became the home minister, Sidhu has been upset with him, added Randhawa.
The Punjab deputy chief minister also denied the allegation that the state government did not want to arrest Majithia.
He said Majithia is not in Punjab and he is not carrying his mobile phone.
If he is spotted anywhere here, then Majithia will be arrested within a second, he said as he dubbed as fake some photos of the Akali leader, which showed him at the Golden Temple complex.
Randhawa said Majithia is also not abroad as a lookout circular, which prevents a person from leaving the country, had been issued against him.
Majithia has been booked under non-bailable provisions of the NDPS Act, the minister said.
Randhawa said no security person was accompanying Majithia.
“He is alone and not carrying his mobile phone,” said Randhawa.
Majithia is absconding, he said.
Asked if he is facing any sort of pressure, Randhawa denied it and said had there been any pressure, how could an FIR be registered against Majithia.
Randhawa said raids are being conducted to arrest him.
Randhawa also slammed AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for calling the registration of the case against Majithia as “weak”.
Replying to Kejriwal’s charge of the Congress being “hand in glove” with the Badals, Randhawa said it was the Delhi chief minister who had sought an apology from Majithia in a defamation case.
Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on the basis of a 2018 report of a probe into a drug racket in the state.
Majithia is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
Besides Sidhu, the Aam Aadmi Party has been attacking the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government for not being able to arrest Majithia despite several days passing since the registration of the FIR.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Sunday had alleged that the Channi government did not want to arrest Majithia as there was a “setting” between it and the Badals.
